Premiere: Monica Aben undergoes love’s many cycles with new album, ‘In Your Universe’

There’s something magical about a single piano and a voice. Angelic and amber, Carole King is the masterclass of acoustic-wrought balladry that tugs at the heartstrings and squeezes the tear ducts dry. The singer-songwriter mold has been bent, melted and mingled with various popular formats, but in its purest form, it can crush mountains and leave nothing by faded stardust in its place. Venice singer, songwriter and musician Monica Aben takes the world in her fingertips, turning over each fragment and crevice in her porcelain hands, and surveys her many life cycles – in and out of love, devastating heartbreak, the climb back out and triumphant march to the mountain peaks. Her new album, In Your Universe, premiering today, glides through cosmic orbits and destinies, culling dreamy soundscapes, and she weaves a star-riddled vision of her very existence.

Patterned over King-draped piano work, Aben’s poeticism is tart and tattered, as feathered pages ripped from her diary. “I’m so sorry I wasn’t enough,” she weeps onto notebook paper. “Easier to Love” is a heart-swollen and scarred meditation, and almost instantly, you understand every bruised hurt reddening on her being. She feels things on a deep, visceral level, and that ache peeks through her phrasing. In opener “Almost Good Enough,” she pleads for things to stay the same, but underneath, the truth comes in sharp, relentless waves foaming and crashing around her. “I never meant to hurt you / You never meant to love me,” she hums between barely parted lips.

“I don’t want anything from you / No empty explanations,” she casts the anguish onto the cold, hard ground. “Never Forget” wraps into the past’s bee sting, a barbed reminder of the venom coursing in her veins, and Aben’s voice is tragic and beautiful. In Your Universe operates within and without both spheres, beckoning you into the flush of emotion that burns her cheeks and bones, and it’s always grounded in raw humanity.

“This album is an ode to the unexpected romantic encounters that change our lives no matter how they play out. If you listen chronologically – do people still do that? I do! – you will hear a story that everyone can relate to in some capacity,” Aben writes to B-Sides & Badlands over email. “It starts with you realizing your worth, then falling into old habits, ultimately breaking those habits, but then just as you begin to come to terms with dying alone at the age of 22, you meet the anomaly. I wanted this record to remind people that there are cosmic connections that haven’t reached them yet. We can be so cynical, but life still has beauty and love still has magic.”

“The Beginning of Things” arrests the senses with the budding of new romance, baked in sun and warm kisses, and “Remind Me” further mangles her heart. “I’m not scared, but it scares me / The way we fit together perfectly / I’ve got you, and you’ve got me,” she lets the butterflies rustle and escape, wings fluttering into wide acrobatic routines. Aben always has a way of speaking simple truths coated in lush accents, a piano rumbling upward, and her words carrying her away into the oncoming sun beams. “You weren’t my first / But you’ll be my last,” she extends her hands on the title song, a pitter-patter marching band echoing behind her.

Aben’s heart can not be tamed, and why would she want it to be? In Your Universe envelopes you from the first chords to the very last (“That’s Love,” a tender crescendo). Synth-y ripples leave an indelible imprint on your skin; 10 songs, 10 stories, 10 fleeting moments impact on the most basic of human principles: the meaning of love.

Below, listen to Aben’s new album, In Your Universe, and read her accompanying tracklist poem:

Every love before you was Almost Good Enough
I’ll Never Forget how I mixed love with mistrust
The pain became the past and now it Feels So Good
Some people are just Easier to Love and I did the best I could
Then one day, when you met me, I stopped and thought…
This is the Love I Need
The Beginning of Things felt like a cosmic collision
And you still Remind Me to live the life I envision
So here’s to forever being spent In Your Universe
Long after I sing my final verse, the Earth will still wake up To The Sun
And you’ll still be my moon and stars, cause That’s Love!

Follow Aben on her socials: Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Website